Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Happy Birthday Elgar!

Known for: beautiful melodies, music that can change from expansive to introspective as quickly as a cloud coming over the sun.

Child prodigy? Not particularly. Elgar studied music as a child. He was a fine violinist and made a living teaching music, but he did not receive widespread public acclaim as a composer until he was in his forties.

Contribution to music: Elgar was the first composer to understand the importance of audio recording, which was just emerging as a new technology. He recorded most of his works first on wax discs and later using electric microphones.

Happy or neurotic?: Happy. Elgar was happily married and had one child. When his wife Alice died in 1920 Elgar was devastated. At that point his productivity in composing slowed to a trickle with many works originating from sketches he had written earlier in his life.

About Me

I joined the KSO in 1986 as a core cellist. I became its principal cellist in 2000. My 25 years in the KSO have provided me with a wealth of experiences from which to draw in blogging. I involve myself with many different kinds of music besides classical. If it sounds good, it IS good! You should know that all of the posts up to September 30, 2010, inclusive, were written by our first blogger, Katy. We can't seem to get Blogger to make this distinction, so bear that in mind.